Thursday, October 8, 2009

Indoor Garden

Last year I brought in two Swiss chard plants for the winter to experiment with continuing the growing season indoors. Since I have the cold frame I decided I'd leave the chard outside this winter. However, when the first threat of frost came a few weeks ago, I decided to move my peppers, basil, and herbs indoors. Here they are in their pots on Sept 19th.
Three basil plants,
One red cayenne pepper plant that had already fruited but looked like it would being to bloom again.
One poblano pepper plant that had just set its first few peppers.
I know that the light I get at my windows isn't nearly strong enough so I decided to put the pots under the seed starting light set up.
These peppers have come full circle, starting under the lights and finishing under the lights. They have been doing well under the lights, though the poblano pepper only gets light on the lower leaves because it is too tall. The red cayenne has some buds developing. The pepper below on the poblano continues to grow. Both the poblano and the red cayenne also recently bloomed. I'll have to make sure it they get pollinated.
I also moved in the herbs from the front porch. In the picture below you can see the ginger (left back) sage (left front), rosemary (back) & thyme, (front). The rosemary and thyme in the center were purchased and the ones on the right were started from seed. I hope they overwinter so I don't have to purchase new plants next year, and since the rosemary is especially slow growing from seed.
As I look back at the other parts of my indoor garden last year, I realized that I brought lettuce in as well. Currently my outdoor lettuce is mostly going to seed. I think I can probably fit a window box sized pot or two along the back here and start lettuce indoors. Wouldn't it be great if I didn't have to buy lettuce this winter!

1 comment:

Dan said...

The peppers should do well for you, I've seen peppers grown to the size of a large shrub! I'm excited about my fall garden this year as I am sure you are too. Can't wait to see how things do. Last year I had romaine growing in the cold frame at the end of Feb. Only five months off.... Good luck with your fall garden and indoor garden.